Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

Applied Geography, Volume 68, 03/2016

The journal I chose to analyze is aptly named Applied Geography, because it discusses different environmental issues concepts in relation to it's geographical location. The next issue is going to be published (physically) in April of this year, however I was able to secure a copy of the March 2016 issue online.

Who is the author?

• In the most current issue, Volume 68, there are many different articles with different authors, some articles with more than one. For example, the very first article was authored by Karina Zelya, Jasper van Vliet, and Peter H. Verburg, who are all professors at different universities. Karina Zelaya is a Professor at California State University, and Japer van Vliet and Peter H. Verburg are professors at the University of Amsterdam. However, this article is just a review article. The rest of the issue is composed of research papers done by other professors. A majority of the authors in the journal are also professors and educators. In this field, research and education are mutually exclusive. But, their research is portrayed as just as important as any other field work.

Who is the audience?

• The journal contains language and some mathematics that require an in depth knowledge of the field to really get all the information that is given. The diagrams are somewhat helpful, but even so, the intended audience audience for this journal is not very general. However, I think that the article could be used as an example for what you could do with an environmental degree, so in turn it could be used as teaching material for a class.

What is the context?

• The theme of this issue is spacial data and awareness in relation to environmental issues/ problems. Each of the articles have "highlights" of the papers/ articles, and all of them at least mention the interpretation and collection of spacial data. This means that only a few of the hundreds of articles that have been submitted to the journal for publication this month are selected. 

What is the message?

• The message of this issue is what happens when you take something that happens in a large area's environment and look at it's affect on a small area's environment, as evidenced by the discussion and visualization of data in various articles.

What is the purpose?

• The issue is analyzing the results of scalar data and showing how our activities can have a huge affect on all environments.